


Yule Log Hunt

by Emimar



Series: Tolkien Twitter RP Shorts [10]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 17:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5505812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emimar/pseuds/Emimar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of the twitter rp shorts</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yule Log Hunt

With a heavy sigh, Kili makes his way to Heidi's pen, his booted feet making crunching sounds in the snow with each step. He uses Lyndheid's rune engraved staff to aid him in keeping himself steady on his feet, not just because of the ice and snow, but because the cold is causing his knee to act up again. He was tired, having been woken up several times in the night to help Lyndheid see to Linny when the babe awoke, crying and from his recent visit to Dale in the bad weather had taken its toll. He had some of Heidi's favourite treats with him to attempt to persuade the cantankerous war sow to enter into a better mood. He took his sword and his bow along with him, as well as one of Dwalin's axes. Any old Yule log wouldn't do, and he had suspicion that he may need to cut a log. As he walked through the animal pens, he noticed that the various goats, pigs and ponies were hungry this morning. The cold weather was taking its toll on them too, and he decided that when he got back, he would have a look at the food stores to make sure that they weren't running low of anything. Heidi grunted and snorted when he came in sight of her pen, and appeared pleased to see him. 

He called to a young stable-hand, a lad who had come over from Dain's kingdom and settled in Erebor after the battle to fetch Heidi's saddle and bridle, as he needed to rest his knee. Heidi snuffled and grunted at him and he reached into the pouch of nuts and fruit he was carrying, took a fist-full of the treats and held his hand out flat to her so she could eat the contents. With his other hand, he scratched her behind the ear, knowing that the sow liked to be scratched there. The sow soon gobbled up the nut and fruit mixture and snuffled her snout over the ring with his royal seal etched into it. 

A light snow drizzle began to fall while he waited for the stable-hand's return with Heidi's riding tack and the wind tousled his hair. The stable-hand returned with the tack and Heidi went from being calm to disgruntled, so he was forced to refuse the lad's help to get her ready. Once the young lad was gone, Heidi calmed down again and allowed him to tack her up. He secured Lynd's staff to her saddle. He walked with her until they had passed the animal pens and were away from other dwarrows before he climbed into the saddle. It was easier to stop her from going berserk if he walked beside her while there were other dwarrows and animals were around, and it was an effort keeping her calm. Heidi relaxed somewhat once they were out in the open and he rode her towards the woods at the bottom of the mountain.

The cold wind which had bothered him outside Heidi's enclousure died down when he entered the treeline and the snow wasn't as deep here, the trees holding much of the snow in their branches. The woods were a different world in winter - it was a bleak place, and if it wasn't for the odd pine tree, ivy, holly and the occassional sprigs of mistletoe in the skeletal branches of the oaks, horse chestnuts, beeches and ash it would have appeared completely devoid of life. He scanned the ground, looking for trees that had recently toppled in the winter storms because those would provide the best logs for the fire place. Trees which had been down for a long time wouldn't do, because the heartwood would have begun to decay and wouldn't provide much fuel to burn at all. Like most dwarves, he was never completely at ease in woods and forests. He bore no ill will to the trees, but he was always haunted by the tales he had been told as a dwarfling of the Huorns and the Ents that would attack dwarves and he had no interest in targeting a living tree, but the axe was nessciary incase he failed to find a log which was small enough for him to take back home on Heidi's back.

He knew that his intentions were good, but he felt like some hidden being was observing his and Heidi's passage through the trees, and he wasn't sure if it was from something friendly, hostile, or from something that was merely curious. Stranger still, was the silence. All other times he had been in the woods, he had heard bird song, and it was unclear if the birds were just quiet this day because they didn't want to waste their energy sing due to the cold, or if they kept silent because /something/ was in the woods with him. To determine that, he would have to rely on Heidi's responses and she appeared more relaxed than she had in her own pen. He stroked the sow between the shoulder blades and continued to search. If Heidi wasn't alarmed by anything in the woods, then there shouldn't be any danger near. He wished, though, that he'd brought Kari the raven along with him, for that bird would have noticed if there was anything amiss before he or Heidi would have. 

Despite having his hands wrapped up in silly looking knitted mittens, the cold begins to make them go numb, so when he eventually does find a suitable tree that has recently fallen, it is hard for him to grip the axe handle. The cold is playing havoc with his knee, and when he dismounts, a sharp pain shoots through his knee and he loses his balence and tumbles in the snow. Heidi grunts and turns around to lick his face. He pushes the sow's snout away, heartened by her concern, something which he thought the sow would never show, and regains his feet. The unfortunate tree is an oak and, with much difficulty due to the numbness in his hands and the pain in his knee, he cuts off a suitably sized log. Breathless, he uses his all his dwarven strength and stuborness that he pocesses to haul the log back to the war pig, took the oppertunity to forage for truffles in the earth. He almost leaves Dwarlin's axe behind because of his efforts and once he has secured the log to Heidi's back, he wearily climbs into the saddle and heads off for home.

Frozen to the bone, he by-passes the pig pens and heads straight to Lynd's garden. He closes the gate, and takes all the tack off Heidi, and leaves everything but the yule log in Lynd's caravan. Ignoring previous events, he leaves Heidi in the garden and goes into the kitchen, forgetting to make sure that the door to the garden is shut. Grabs a mince pie, and with the Yule log under his arm, heads for the Main Hall.


End file.
